How Krishna came to stay at Udupi

Udupi is a town on the west coast of India and is situated in the state of Karnataka.

Udupi is associated with Lord Krishna just as Puri is identified with Lord Jagannath or Mount Kailash with Lord Shiva. But it is interesting to note that Krishna has been residing here from the thirteenth century. Before that, Udupi was a holy place where two other temples of Lord Ananteshwara and Lord Chandramouleeswara existed (which still exist). People from far and near came to visit these temples as they do even today. But how Krishna came to reside in Udupi is an interesting story.

Madhyageha Bhatta and his wife Vedavathi were a childless couple belonging to a village, eight miles away from Udupi. Bhatta was an ardent devotee of the Lord Anantheshwara and used to travel every day from his village to Udupi to pray for a child to continue his lineage. This was going on for twelve years.

One day, a devotee who seemed to be possessed and in a trance climbed up the flag post at the Anantheshwara temple and announced that an incarnation of Lord Vayu (Wind) would be soon born to guide the humanity along the path of right principles. Bhatta who was a witness to this oracle, somehow felt intuitively that the divine child was going to be his child.

In due course, Vedavathi gave birth to this divine child in 1238 A.D whom they named Vasudeva. Vasudeva was a very bright child and at the same time was extraordinarily strong and beautiful also. He excelled in swimming and martial arts and also possessed an extraordinary intellect. Vasudeva was initiated into the Vedic learnings at the age of five. He was very good in his studies and therefore at the age of eleven left to seek higher knowledge from a saintly teacher at Udupi by the name of Achyutapreksha. Achyutapreksha was very happy to have such a bright student and taught him all that was there to be taught.

After a year of staying with Achyutapreksha, Vasudeva wanted to be initiated into “Sannyasa” and renounce the world. Though his parents were not for it, Vasudeva became a monk and his teacher named him “Purnaprajna”.

Purnaprajna gained mastery over the Vedantas and travelled far and wide mostly in the South of India, participating in vedantic debates with learned scholars and was always the winner at the end. Now people started to call him “Madhva” or “Madhvacharya”. His philosophy was called “Dvaita” as against Shankara’s “Advaita”. Madhva then travelled to the Himalayas and Badrinath and is said to have met the sage Vyasa and learnt more intricate portions of the Vedantas and returned to Udupi. He wrote the commentary for the Bhagavad Gita and also many books and composed many hymns. He used to give lectures on the life of Lord Krishna in the Ananteshwara temple at Udupi. He had a deep desire to build a temple for his favourite deity Krishna, at Udupi.

One day, when Madhvacharya had gone to the Malpe beach with a few of his disciples he was absorbed there in composing a hymn “Dvadasha Stotra”. The sea was choppy and rough. All of a sudden, he could see a ship at a distance being tossed by the waves. There seemed to be people on board.

Madhva prayed to the Lord and waved his upper garment signalling to the people on the ship and slowly the sea became calm. However, due to the wind, the vessel ran aground. The people in the ship were happy that their lives were saved and the captain was so thankful to this monk. He got down with the help of a rope ladder and came to the shore to thank Madhvacharya. He was a Muslim merchant carrying goods from Gujarat. He knew that it was, by the power of this monk that the sea had become calm.

“Thank you, Holy Sir,” said the captain offering his salutations, “you have saved our lives. As a mark of gratitude, I want to offer you something. Kindly take whatever you want from the things I am carrying on board”

Madhvacharya accepted his invitation and went on board and found a big lump of clay (Gopi Chandana) which this merchant had put into his ship as ballast when he commenced his journey from Gujarat.

Madhvacharya intuitively knew that this was what was meant for him and told the merchant that he would take this big lump of clay. The merchant was happy that removing this lump of clay would also lighten the ship and the ship could move when the tide came in.So he gladly gave the lump of clay to Madhvacharya.

Madhvacharya and his followers took the big lump of Gopi Chandana from the ship and got down. As they were wading their way through the shallow waters and neared the beach, the lump split and broke and they could see a beautiful ‘murti’ (idol)  inside.

Madhvacharya was elated. He knew that the murti was that of his favourite deity Krishna.

“I have been waiting for you my dear Lord!” he said with tears of joy. There was a lot of clay still around the murti and the murti seemed to be heavier than before. The disciples could not lift the murti now. The Lord seemed to want only Madhva to carry him. Madhva bent down and embraced the murti with the clay and lifted it into his arms as a father would lovingly lift a child and, lo and behold, the murti was light enough to be carried.

Madhvacharya was in a state of ecstasy and as if in a trance, carried it to the tank near the Ananteswara temple and dipped it inside. Washed by the cool waters of the tank,the strikingly beautiful form came out of the Gopi Chandana to the joy of all the onlookers. Madhvacharya built a temple for this child God next to the Ananteswara and Chandramouleeswara temples and from then Krishna started residing at Udupi. Madhvacharya taught his eight disciples the rules of worshipping this Krishna. The eight disciples established their schools or “Mathas” and each head of the “Matha” gets the right to perform worship and administer the temple matters once in two years even now.

But I know you are wondering how the idol was found inside a lump of clay. Intriguing isn’t it? Well, let me tell you that story as well.

As we all know, Lord Krishna was born as the eighth son of Devaki and Vasudeva in the prison room of the demonic King Kamsa. On the very night of his birth, baby Krishna was carried to Gokul and was exchanged with the daughter of Nandagopa. Therefore, Krishna was brought up by Yashoda and Nandagopa. Devaki could meet Krishna only as a young boy after Kamsa was killed.

Devaki was having this grievance for a long time and in her old age when she was staying with Krishna at Dwarka, she told him one day about it. “Krishna, my son” she said, “I was destined to have eight children but was never able to see the childish pranks of even one of them. Yashoda brought you up and enjoyed your pranks and the gibberish you spoke. Every time I hear of your pranks from someone, I yearn to see you in that stage. Will you show me a vision of your childhood, my child?”

Krishna looked at his mother with affection. He thought of all the suffering she had undergone in spite of being a princess and he was filled with sympathy at the thought of her destiny.

With a benevolent smile, he replied, “Why not mother? Here I am!”. And to the surprise of Devaki, Krishna assumed the form of a three-year-old, and climbed on to Mother Devaki’s lap. Devaki was thrilled and cuddled the child Krishna with so much of love and affection, to her heart’s content.To satisfy her yearning, Krishna remained in that form for some time following her wherever she went. Remembering that she had heard that He loved butter, Devaki churned some butter, by which time he ran and took the churn and rope from her and snatched the butter, smearing Himself with butter. He was looking so very cute and mischievous, eating butter with relish, and speaking in such childish gibberish and Devaki was enchanted and on cloud nine witnessing this act of the Lord.

Krishna resumed his normal form. Devaki was overjoyed. Rukmini,Krishna’s wife who was watching it, was also enamoured with this child form of her Lord.

“I want this childhood figure of yours to be sculpted O Lord!” she requested Krishna.

Krishna smiled and the divine architect Viswakarma was called to sculpt the statue of the child Krishna with the rope and the churn. Viswakarma sculpted the figure exactly as they had seen. Rukmini worshipped this idol at her palace.

After the time of Krishna, Rukmini entrusted the safekeeping of the idol to Arjuna the Pandava and he in turn kept it in a place called Rukminivana near Dwarka. Over a period of time, the idol got covered by the Gopi Chandana clay and being exposed to the vagaries of weather, the clay hardened over the idol and it became a huge clay lump which was carried by this merchant as ballast in his ship and this is what was taken by Madhvacharya and installed at Udupi. This is how Krishna came to stay at Udupi.

And he is the loving child who we all worship at Udupi. Interestingly, the Lord is seen turning towards the west and can be seen only through a window. There is an interesting story on how this came about which I shall narrate later.

The photos in the image are taken by my husband during our recent visit to the Udupi temple.